Hi Roger,
My largest board is a 05 carve 111 and my biggest sail is a 7.5.
I have been thinking about getting a bigger board for light wind days (with the 7.5) that would plane earlier, carry through lulls better, and be a bit more comfortable off plane. I weigh ~185. Any thoughts about whether one of the futuras would do the trick and what size might work?
Thanks!
jeb

Roger will likely jump in, but here is my take. Any of the futuras from the 122 up will help you plane a little bit earlier, carry throught the lulls better and will be comfortable to slog.

However, the gain in early planing will be minimal if you stay with the 7.5 as your largest sail. To receive the benefit of a larger board, you should invest in larger sails. Your 7.5 is ideal for your carve 111, but you should be looking at an 8.5 and possibly a 9.5 if you jump up to a futura 133 or the 141. One of these two boards would be my recommendation to go with your 111. I would look at the 141 first to better cover the light wind days.

Larger sails will call for larger booms and masts, so the costs can go up significantly. On the other hand, if you sail often, you will not doubt gain a lot from a larger sail. If you only sail occasionally, I wouldn't give up on larger sails, but I would look at the used sail / mast / boom market to find something bigger at a low cost. I would do this too even if you go for the 141.

If you are worried about managing bigger sails, I weigh 170 lbs and have a 7.6, 8.4, 9.2 and 11.0 sails, plus all the smaller ones. However, I do sail a formula board, which really needs the large sails to perform. My next board down from the F160 is an iSonic 111.

All of this depends on the typical conditions in which you will sail. Give us a little more information regarding your experience, how much you sail and in what contitions, and we (Roger) can refine the answer.

Hi Jeb,
Ken has pretty much covered most of what I would have suggested.
Getting a larger (wider and capable of carrying a larger fin) board is not going to get you
much in terms of early planing and quality time on the water in lighter winds if you stay with the 7.5, esp. at your weight.\
An 8.5 m2 free race rig will buy you alot in terms of early planing and somewhere between 8.5 and 9.5 you will run into a sail size "threshold" where larger sails won't get you much gain (unless you get a really wide board similar to a formula).
Again, Ken has pretty well covered the attributes of the 133 and 144 Futuras.
If you were to get a 9.5 m2 rig then a 150 liter + Futura or iSonic makes a bit more sense.
As Ken suggests, give us a better idea of your skills and actual windspeeds and water surface conditions and we can refine the answers here.
Hope this helps,

Though not what I was hoping to hear, thanks for the input Ken and Roger! As far as my level, I am reasonably proficient. My favorite board is my 85L FSW, which is a blast in the large windblown swell we get on the high wind days. We get a fair amount of chop and windblown swell but obviously this is less on the light wind days. My gybing and jumping have been steadily improving. I get to sail about 40 days a year. I was hoping to avoid going the larger sail route. I think everyone I know has 7.5 as a largest sail. I thought that seeing as the 7.5 is a bit outside the recommended range for the carve, that simply a jump as small as a 122 futura (from 65cm to 72 cm) could transform the marginal 7.5 days where I am struggling to perfect 7.5 days , where the sail is in the sweetspot of the board. However, based on your comments it seems that is a pipe dream. If I were to get a bigger sail, which i doubt i will (lugging the 7.5 around seems bad enough) would going to 8.5 be enough or would 9 be a better spread. Part of me says the smaller the better. However, I have a 6.5 and 7.5 and though there is a notable power difference, whether I rig one vs the other is really only a matter of a few miles and hour. If I have a solid 20mph I can rig the 6.5, if it is 17-20 I'll rig the 7.5. The 7.5 is a retro by the way. If I were to get one larger sail, any recommendations? And also what size board to match? In the back of my mind though I still wish just putting my 7.5 on a 122 would do the trick....

I don't think a 122 with your 7.5 will be worth the investment. It would make Starboard happy, but the gain in early planing will be negligible. On the other hand, the slogging will be more comfortable.

The decision on going larger pretty much depends on how many more days you could get per year with a new board and sail. If you sit home 10-20 days a year because the wind is 14 - 17 mph, then bigger gear may be worth it. I am guessing that with good pumping, you could get the futura 141 with an 8.5 planing in 12-14 mph winds (maybe with the 133 if you pump your brains out). If your wind is usually highly variable (8-17 mph for example), staying on plane will be impossible in those conditions (less justification to go with the larger gear).

If you go up in sail size, one meter is a good jump in this range, so I would go with an 8.5,but only if you go for the 133 or 141.

When you jump up in sail size, it's normal to feel overwhelmed with the "giant" sail. If you stick with it, you will become comfortable very quickly.

In my early years, I was always enthusiastic about going up in sail size, thinking I would be planing and smoking across the water at great speeds. I was frequently disappointed with the gain in early planing and speed, just to keep things in prespecitve.

I agree with Roger regarding a 9.5 (or 9.0) sail. If you go that big, you should go with a larger board (150) to better cover your low wind range (12-17 mph).

I guess your goal is to cover the broadest wind range with the least amount of equipment. We all have gone through this dilemma. Some of us go for maximum coverage (my sails range from 4.0 - 11.0), but many others choose to go with only small gear (4 - 6.5/7.5) and only go out when the wind is 17 - 35 mph.

What do you do when the wind picks up? You may have to consider going down in sail size too, since a 6.5 will be a bit large when wind approaches 25+ mph.